Earn money reading books?

Make $500 a week -- no experience necessary?

Postal jobs paying up to $67,000?

Video

Watch Wendy Bell's Report

Classified advertisements like these are seen everywhere, from daily newspapers like the Post-Gazette and the Tribune-Review to weeklies like the City Paper and the Pennysaver.

Channel 4 Action News reporter Wendy Bell checked out dozens of classifieds to determine if there's any truth to the alluring advertising.

Overall, Bell says classified sections are much cleaner than they used to be. Publications are doing more policing and rooting out those too-good-to-be-true ads. But she found that the burden of proof rests with readers.

Susan Marquette was close to getting sucked in.

Marquette: "I'm unemployed. I'm reading everything I can about jobs."

Marquette was leafing through a Pennysaver when an ad for a postal job paying up to $59 an hour caught her attention.

Marquette: "The very first thing the woman said to me was, 'Do you have a credit card?' And I said, 'Why do you need to know if I have a credit card?' Click. Dial tone. She hung up on me."

Bell asked Bruce Hammerle, a United States Postal Inspector in Pittsburgh, to check it out.

Hammerle: "The real deal is that it's not related to the postal service. It's not related to a government agency. It's some private person or company."

And that person or company will charge you $30 for job-hunting materials. That's what you get. Not a job with the post office.

Hammerle says postal inspectors investigate approximately 30,000 complaints about questionable classifieds every year.

Hammerle: "They will give names to these organizations or Web sites that sound very similar to the government organizations and seem to be legitimate, but it's just a word or two off from the real thing."

Like this one: "Spare-time work, full-time income."

Using Google.com to check out the phone number, Bell got A-1 Moving and Limousine Service. The ad in the paper gives the name A1 Shoper, misspelled with one "p." So Bell called.

Bell on phone: "You say I could make more than $60,000 a year? I just have to be motivated? Well, I'm motivated."

That is, until the pitch for a $500 buy-in to join a shopping network.

One Pennysaver ad for overstocked spas sounds like a deal. Bell found it in classified papers from Florida, San Diego, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The catch? You have to pay half up front -- $1,500 -- before the bubbler arrives, if it ever arrives.

Gina Curcio, Pennysaver telemarketing manager: "Do your research. Do your homework. Ask for references."

Curcio says the paper's salespeople try to weed out too-good-to-be-true ads before local editions go to press.

"Good, bad and no credit."

"Earn $700 a week working at home."

"$35,000 a year typing."

"As much as $86,000 working in law enforcement."

What these ads don't tell you is that you have to pay a fat fee to learn more.

Bill Weaver, Pennysaver general manager: "The big racket right now is having a number that actually goes into Detroit and gets forwarded into Canada, where the laws are different."

Weaver says his staff spends hundreds of hours investigating every classified complaint, and the people behind them are blacklisted. Still, some slip through the ink.

An oldie but a goodie is mailing letters from home. The business -- "US Digest" -- is really a warehouse company with an Asian Web site. When Bell called, a taped message said she could earn $529 a week if she paid a $50 up-front fee for supplies.

Read carefully, suspect mightily and never send money when an ad promises you big money back.

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"Work At Home"

What if work-at-home ads were actually a way to steal your identity? According to federal officials, it's happening more and more.

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Hammerle: "Someone applies for a work-at-home job. They provide their name, Social Security number, date of birth, whatever, and that information is taken and used to commit fraud."

Call 4 Action reporter Meghan Jones says people need to watch out for identity theft fencing schemes disguised as work-at-home opportunities.

Here's how it works:

You respond to an employment ad.

They tell you the job involves reshipping packages.

They need a candidate who stays home during the day to receive the packages.

They provide you with shipping materials and you send it somewhere else, usually out of the country.

Hammerle: "These packages are merchandise, and are purchased with someone else's credit card account, so this person thinks they're doing a work-at-home job but they're actually part of a fencing scam."

The problem doesn't end there, because you are the patsy. You may need to convince law enforcement that you were acting unwittingly.

Hammerle: "Someone sitting at home thinks there's nothing wrong with it -- 'All I have to do is send it over to Africa or Europe, whatever' -- and they're reshipping stolen merchandise."

To receive a free informational pamphlet about identity theft, contact Call 4 Action at (412) 333-4444. They are available in English and Spanish.